783 New Sex Abuse Claims Against the Catholic Church
in 2005!

Costs Soar As Clergy Sex Abuse Cases Rise

By RACHEL ZOLL, AP Religion Writer

New figures released Thursday by the nation's
Roman Catholic bishops show the unrelenting toll of the clergy sex abuse
crisis: 783 new credible claims last year, most of which date back
decades, and costs of nearly $467 million.

While researchers who analyzed 50 years of
data on molestation claims concluded the number of new cases is declining,
the church is still paying a heavy price for predatory clergy.

The abuse problem was already known to have
cost dioceses more than $1 billion since 1950, including some expenses
paid last year. Still, Teresa Kettelkamp, director of the bishops' Office
of Child and Youth Protection, said the total abuse-related expenses
shelled out in 2005 were likely the largest ever for a single year.

The total number of accusations against
Catholic clergy now stands at more than 12,000 since 1950.(emphasis
added)

The latest statistics were released as part
of the third audit U.S. bishops commissioned to restore trust in their
leadership after abuse allegations soared in 2002. Auditors found that
88.5 percent of dioceses had put in place full safeguards for children
required by the bishops' reforms.

However, advocates for victims called the
audit inadequate, since 104 of the 195 American dioceses conducted a
"self-audit." In previous years, teams from the Gavin Group, a private
firm led by former FBI agent William Gavin, had conducted onsite audits in
all participating dioceses.

Speaking at a news conference, Gavin and a
key church official agreed with the critics that the new report didn't
capture the full picture.

They pointed to the recent failure of the
Archdiocese of Chicago to remove an accused priest from church work for
four months until he was criminally charged. The archdiocese was found to
be in full compliance in the 2005 audit, but an outside investigator hired
by Chicago Cardinal Francis George to look into the priest's case found a
string of stunning lapses by archdiocesan staff that left children at
risk.

The failures had an impact beyond Chicago
because George played a key role in shaping the bishops' new discipline
plan that permanently bars guilty priests from church work. George also is
the vice president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

"To find that this happened in Chicago was a
great sorrow and disappointment to all of us," said Patricia Ewers,
chairwoman of the National Review Board, the bishops' lay watchdog panel.
"If people do not live up to their responsibilities, do not communicate
effectively, then you can have the kind of terrible consequences you have
in Chicago."

Ewers said the Chicago case provided strong
evidence that the bishops need to expand the scope of their audits and
measure whether child protection programs are working. Gavin supported the
idea, which will be brought before the nation's bishops.

In a companion report, researchers from the
John Jay College of Criminal Justice, who the bishops had hired to tally
abuse claims nationwide from 1950-2002, released a new analysis of that
data which found the number of new abuse cases peaked in the 1970s and
1980s and then began to decline.

In 2004, dioceses received more than 1,092
new abuse claims, in addition to the 10,667 claims the American church
received from 1950-2002. However, just like the claims in 2005, most of
the allegations involved incidents from decades ago.

"The decrease in sex abuse cases is real,"
said Karen Terry, principal investigator on the study.

The bishops' abuse prevention policy requires
dioceses to hire victim assistance coordinators, form review boards to
help evaluate abuse claims, conduct background checks on staff and
volunteers and teach children to protect themselves from predators.

The biggest failure auditors found was that
several dioceses don't have full safe environment training for children,
and four dioceses have not fully complied with the call for background
checks. The four dioceses are Burlington, Vt.; Portland, Maine; Salina,
Kan.; and the Apostolic Exarchate for Armenian Catholics in New York.

Barbara Blaine, a found of the Survivors
Network of Those Abused by Priests, said none of the programs will work as
long as no one is monitoring the bishops — who retain enormous discretion
in overseeing priests. Only the pope can discipline bishops.

Separately Thursday, the New Hampshire
attorney general released an independent audit her office conducted of sex
abuse prevention in the Manchester Diocese, finding that the church failed
to make sure that criminal background checks have been done on all
employees and volunteers who work with children.

The state audit was part of a 2002 agreement
the diocese struck with prosecutors to avoid criminal prosecution over
failure to rein in abusers.